The fund families of Oppenheimer and Gartmore garnered top honors on Tuesday night, with the announcement of the 2006 U.S. Lipper Fund Awards. The "Best Group Over Three Years" overall award went to Oppenheimer in the large fund category, and Gartmore in the small. Oppenheimer also nabbed the award for best large fixed income fund family.

Lipper, a New York-based, wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters, was founded in 1973. It tracks and analyzes 125,000 mutual funds across the globe, and holds annual awards ceremonies recognizing industry leaders in various countries. This is the fourth straight year it has presented awards to U.S. funds.

Individual funds can compete for laurels in numerous categories divided by ranking period. This year's winners were determined through Lipper's calculations of a consistent return score for each fund under consideration, over three-, five-, and ten-year periods ending December 31, 2005. Fund families were ranked by averaging three-year consistent returns for all of the firm's funds within each asset class.

Other 2006 fund family winners were: Davis Selected Advisers for large equity funds and Henderson Global Investors for small equity funds; Lebenthal & Company in the small fixed income fund category; American Funds for large mixed equity funds, and First American Funds for small mixed equity funds.

Manhattan-based Oppenheimer, whose fund family bested 27 others under consideration, issued a press release on Wednesday, pointing out that three of its mutual funds also received three-year performance awards in their respective Lipper categories. Oppenheimer AMT-Free Municipals, Oppenheimer California Municipal Fund, and Oppenheimer Rochester National Municipals were all managed by a team based in Oppenheimer's Rochester, New York offices. The team, led by Ron Fielding, manages more than $23 billion in assets across 10 Oppenheimer funds that invest in municipal securities.

Gartmore's family emerged victorious out of a field of 17 eligible contestants. The Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based firm had two individual winners: the Gartmore Worldwide Leaders Fund, which beat 15 competitors to be named best global large-cap core fund, and the Gartmore Micro Cap Equity Fund, which was recognized as best small-cap core fund out of a field of 214 contenders.

Said Gartmore Group CEO Paul Hondros in a press release, "Believing that superior performance is a function of seasoned and talented managers and analysts, we have created clusters of small, enfranchised teams with shared resources across a series of investment solutions.

"The fact that the Lipper 'Fund Family' award recognizes consistent risk-adjusted performance across a number of asset classes and investment styles is an encouraging confirmation of the soundness of our approach."  

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